S E С T I O N II

INTONATION

Intonation is a complex unity of variations in pitch, stress, tempo, timbre and rhythm.

The pitch component of intonation, or melody, is the changes in the pitch of the voice in connected speech.

Sentence stress, or accent, is the greater prominence of one or more words among other words in the same sentence.

Tempo is the relative speed with which sentences and intonation groups are pronounced in connected speech.

Speech timbre is a special colouring of voice which shows the speakers emotions, i.e. pleasure, displeasure, sorrow, etc.

Rhythm is a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables within more or less equal intervals of time. Rhythm is a very specific feature of English speech.

The main functions of intonation are:

1)sentence-forming,

2)sentence delimiting,

3)distinctive,

4)attitudinal.

Sentences may be short or long. Long sentences are divided into parts called sense-groups or intonation groups. A sentence which is not divided into smaller parts is both a sense-group and a sentence.

An intonation group is the shortest possible unit of speech from the point of view of meaning, grammatical structure and intonation. So there are three main criteria to be used in dividing sentences into sense-groups:

semantic, grammatical and phonetic.

The division of a sentence into sense-groups depends on the idea to be expressed.

e.g. Have you got any brothers | or sisters?

(if there are two sense-groups in the sentence it is an alternative question in which the noun "brothers" is opposed to the noun "sisters")

Have you got any brothers or sisters?

{if the sentence contains only one sense-group it is a general question)

Grammatically a sense-group is represented by a word, a group of words, a clause or a sentence.

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